updated 03:29 pm EDT, Fri July 12, 2013

Bidders in sale failed to provide high-enough offers for Hulu

Streaming media service Hulu will not be sold to another company, it has revealed. The Walt Disney Company, 21st Century Fox, and NBCUniversal, the owning companies of the service, have all decided to pull Hulu from potential sale, and instead will be providing another $750 million in investment to grow the service further.

COO and president of 21st Century Fox Chase Carey believes that the "best path forward for Hulu is a meaningful recapitalization that will further accelerate its growth under the current ownership structure." Robert A. Iger, Chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company states that the investment from the three companies will "enable Hulu to achieve its maximum potential." Currently, Hulu has more than 30 million monthly visitors, and doubled its Hulu Plus subscriber count in 2012 to more than four million, and earned $690 million in that year alone.

Reports at the end of the sale bidding period suggested that DirecTV, The Chernin Group, and Guggenheim Digital Media were the leading bids, allegedly followed by Time Warner Cable and equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. The bid from former News Corp President Peter Chernin under the Chernin Group holding company was claimed to be worth $500 million, suggesting that other bids would have been in a similar ballpark. In 2011, Hulu was looking to be sold for a far higher $2 billion, and it is not known if any of the offers were anywhere near that figure.